News
from Russia
• From May 30 to June 16
Carol Vesecky, Director of Biointensive for Russia,
and her co-leader, Shoshana Billik, took a group
of five ecotourists to five regions of Western Russia.
During the tour they visited beautiful historic
and natural sites, attended operas and had a chance
to talk with their Russian hosts. To find out more
about this part of the trip, access Biointensive
for Russia's website: http://biointensiveforrussia.igc.org.
Carol will be leading another tour in 2006. The
2005 group also had a chance to find out about the
Biointensive activities in the region. This article
focuses on the latter and is taken from Carol's
report.
After Moscow, the tour went to Bryansk, where their
hosts were Ludmilla Zhirina and Igor Prokofiev,
the co-directors of Viola, a non-profit established
to help lessen the effects of the Chernobyl contamination
of the region. Carol and a tour member visited gardens
in two villages, “where Viola's colleagues
are conducting an experiment using Biointensive
techniques to limit the uptake of radionuclides
into the vegetables they grow. We were received
at their schools in Bryansk and in the village of
Domashevo by the schools' principals, Oleg Zavarzin
and Natalya Karyagine, who are active in Viola and
had attended our workshops at Novo-Sin'kovo. The
ecocenters at both schools made a wonderful impression,
presenting information on the components of GROW
BIOINTENSIVE, as well as natural science, various
seeds of wild plants, student art work depicting
nature, etc. Ludmilla and Igor also organized our
trip to Orel [where Viola gave a series of Biointensive
workshops last year], where we gathered at a ‘round
table' at the university, where they plan to teach
GROW BIOINTENSIVE in the fall.”
The group also traveled to Krasnodar,
Maikop, Kamennomostkil in the Caucasus mountains,
Kurganinsk on the Black Sea, Sochi and St. Petersburg.
After the tour members had returned home, Carol
stayed another week in Moscow with Biointensive
teachers Larissa and Sasha Avrorin. She and Sasha
planned the publication of the Russian translation
of Ecology Action's Sustainable Vegetable Garden.
- With five ecotourists paying all
their costs and Shoshana and I providing a portion,
we were able to donate $1,000 to the NGO Viola
for their experiments in the radiation zone and
their fall workshops at Orel University, and send
$500 to Irina Kim [in Uzbekistan] for her summer
tour to the Nuratau villages” [where she
trains the villagers in Biointensive techniques].
We received a report from Ludmilla
Zhirina in September, translated and sent to us
by Carol Vesecky. We print here excerpts from that
report:
“An experiment in GB [GROW
BIOINTENSIVE] has been conducted this year at more
than 20 schools. They grow the very same crop using
both the traditional method and the GB methodology.
This year we have had no rain since mid-July. At
the end of the summer, few children do agricultural
work, and the school gardens aren't watered. So
now, in the autumn, the advantages of GB are readily
apparent. The crops in the vegetable patches where
traditional methods were used are small, the vegetables
tiny and the leaves are yellow. But [in] the plots
were GB was used, the greens are beautiful and the
crops are good. In the gardens without GB, cabbage
heads generally did not even appear.”
“April 26, 2006, will mark
20 years of our life following Chernobyl. The government
gives the impression that the catastrophe was long
ago and that there are no continuing/lingering consequences.
But the people are even more sick; they lose interest
in life and see no way out. Our Viola organization
has reached agreement with several state farms and
farmers of [Russia, Ukraine and Belarus] that they
will permit analysis of vegetables for the amount
of radionuclides. We have reached agreement with
several science centers and they are prepared to
rent us a special mobile laboratory. It is very
important now, when crops are being harvested on
the territory contaminated by radiation, to very
effectively conduct scientific research expeditions
in [these territories]. And later, when we show
the people the information gleaned and explain that
GB methodologies can help lower the amount of radionuclide
accumulation, many farmers, schools and residents
will begin to study and use GB. Later, we can use
these materials at conferences and in articles commemorating
the 20th year since Chernobyl.”
Biointensive for Russia was able
to send them funds to partially support this research.
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